Coda

Let us return to the twelve gods of Olympus. In some representations they are depicted as married couples, like Zeus and Hera, or as brother and sister, like Apollo and Artemis. But unlike the other five couples, Hestia and Hermes are not defined by kinship or dependency. Why then are these two arranged as a pair? According to Jean-Pierre Vernant, it is because their functions are complementary: Hestia is the god of the home or, more precisely, the god of the hearth, representing the centre of the home in Greek mythology; Hermes, on the other hand, is the god of the threshold, the god who, unlike Hestia, is always on the move and who mediates between outside and inside, living and dead, gods and men.